Virtual reality

Today I was talking to my good friend Jen who I haven't spoken to in aaaaages and it was so great. We were bridesmaids at each other's weddings but these days it's hard to stay in very close communication so every now and then we get on the phone and talk for hours to make up for the months in between.

Anyway... I was telling Jen about my book idea and we were talking about the whole "living in the moment" thing which is quite fundamental to Buddhist teachings - something we're both drawn to. Jen was saying that they (she and her hubby) have been to a lot of 21st birthday parties lately since their daughter is turning 21 and they have noticed something very strange about today's younger generation. They don't actually have fun. Instead they spend their whole time using their mobile phones and digital cameras to take photos of themselves "having fun" so they can msg their mates with said photos, email them or whack them on facebook to prove how much "fun" they had. But it's pretend fun.. all performed for the camera. How bizarre!?!

It really highlighted for me the gulf there is between Gen X and Gen Y (if you choose to assign labels which I normally don't but for the sake of ease of reference....). Their whole concept of 'happiness' is based on the answers to such questions as how big is your plasma, how slim is your phone and how fast is your freakin' download speed?

It certainly highlighted to me that the more affluent we become and the more sophisticated our technology, the more we seem to lose touch with the simple pleasures in life. So instead of being happier, we're more dissatisfied, less connected, have more shallow relationships and are ultimately much LESS happy. Sheesh! Something is wrong with this picture.

I was going to post this on the 'other' blog but don't have the time right now to pretty it up and make it suitable for public viewing. I just had to share it though so I thought I'd offload it here.